What’s in an RV badge?

Many years ago, some advertisers would promote their product by simply writing ‘Look!’ in large letters to get a buyer’s attention. Back when women stood taller with beehive hairstyles and all men wore a suit to the office, such advertising must have compelled people to stop and look, as instructed. Such innocent times.

Now we’re bombarded with advertising or promotion from all angles, virtual and otherwise. Advertising and marketing takes many more forms, from the overt to the very subtle. One of the more subtle types of RV advertising is where a manufacturer promotes either the quality or the Australian content of their product, via an ‘independent’ organisation or even with its own say so.

Your key to greater value?

You might have noticed a RVMAP ‘key’ badge on many newer RVs, usually stuck on the wall right next to the entry door.

RVMAP is an accreditation program for caravan, motorhome and camper trailer manufacturers run by the Caravan Industry Association of Australia (CIAA). The CIAA charges RV manufacturers a fee for each RVMAP badge they stick on their RVs, as well as an annual membership fee.

The RV manufacturers have to agree to an inspection regime, done by CIAA inspectors.

Accordingly, to wear the RVMAP badge, the RV manufacturers have to allow CIAA inspectors to check their RVs against relevant Australian Design Rules and Australian Standards in a full inspection. However, not each and every RV made by the RVMAP members is inspected for accreditation; inspections are just random samples, covering approximately five per cent of total RVs sold.

Of more than 120 RV brands in Australia today, there are 66 RV manufacturers that are accredited members of RVMAP but, interestingly, some of Australia’s more prominent RV manufacturers including Jayco and New Age are not RVMAP members.

There are two related ‘key’ badges: the ‘RVMAP Camper’ badge, for camper trailer manufacturers, and the ‘RVMAP International’ badge, which is for imported, accredited RVs.

Does the 'key' unlock quality?

Even the CIAA itself does not suggest that the RVMAP key is a “guarantee or warranty... as to product compliance... [or] the financial strength of a participating business”. In other words, if a RVMAP member builds you a dodgy van or goes bust, don’t blame RVMAP.

These industry accreditation badges are not new; up to the RVMAP inception in 2014, there was the RV Manufacturers Australia accreditation, and of course there was also a RVMAA ‘Member’ badge stuck on RVs back then.

What about the Camper Guild?

RVMAP isn’t the only organisation weaponising RV manufacturers with badges; there’s a similar organisation for Aussie camper trailers. Formed in 2011, the Australian Manufactured Camper Trailer Guild (AMCTG) helps to promote Australian camper trailer manufacturers against a flood of imports.

The AMCTG regularly audits its members to ensure components such as the suspension, body, chassis and tent are Australian-made and fully compliant with Australian Design Rules.

With a membership growing up to 29 Australia camper-trailer manufacturers by 2012, 10 years later the AMCTG has declined to just 10 such members. There are also 14 members of the Guild who supply locally-made components to the camper-trailer industry.

Even if you're just keen to keep your money in Australia when buying an RV, you can’t totally rely on a badge proclaiming that the RV was made here.

Aussie, Aussie!

The familiar ‘Australian Made’ logo is administered by Australian Made Campaign Limited (AMCL), a not-for-profit public company established in 1999 by the Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ACCI).

Companies using Australian Made stickers must pay an annual licence fee (the amount depends on turn-over) to use one of a number of official logos on registered products, including ‘Australian Made’, ‘Product of Australia’, and ‘Australian Made & Owned’.

There are 240 products related to RVs licensed to use the Australian Made logos, some of them RV manufacturers such as Lotus Caravans and Patriot Campers.

However, even if wearing the ‘Australian Made’ badge, that does not mean that an RV is wholly made in Australia.

AMCL says that, “A product can be described as 'Australian made' or 'made in Australia' if it underwent its last substantial transformation in Australia. A product has been substantially transformed in Australia [if it was produced here or] as a result of one or more processes carried out in Australia, the end product is fundamentally different in identity, nature or essential character from all of its imported ingredients or components.”

Good Design, better camper?

Good Design Australia is an international design promotion organisation that dates back to 1958 and is responsible for managing the annual Australian Good Design Awards.  The Track Trailer T4 won a Good Design Award in 2019 for Engineering Excellence and of course, has a badge on the side of the trailer to prove it.

The Melbourne-built Bolwell Edge caravan was another winner of a Good Design Award...

Self-accreditation?

Not all such RV badges are the result of joining an independent group; some RV manufacturers promote their Australian-ness or quality on their own say-so. Provided that the badge is not a copywritten one pinched from elsewhere or claims of being ‘Australian made’ doesn’t breach Australian Consumer Law (“any claims a business does make must not be false, misleading or deceptive”), there is nothing stopping a company applying such logo stickers or badges to its products.

Big-selling Pakenham, Victoria manufacturer Avan has been using different forms of its own ‘Australian made and owned’ badge for a number of years. Based in Pakenham, Victoria, Avan will celebrate its 30th year in 2023 as a local manufacturer and importer of caravans, campers and motorhomes.

Another popular local manufacturer Crusader Caravans has also applied its own ‘Quality Assured badges to its caravans which the company says is the result of a nine-part QA process undertaken at the Melbourne factory and dealerships, including quality control checks at each production stage, along with a ‘final factory QA’, and ‘white glove sign-off’.

Meanwhile New Age, bought by Walkinshaw Performance Group in 2018, promotes a link with automotive manufacturing and quality assurance processes of its parent company, by applying a ‘Walkinshaw Designed & Engineered’ badge to its campers and caravans. This was the result, the company claims, of introducing significant production changes, with an automotive-style production flow system, to ensure more consistent quality and lower production costs.